‘Disaster’ forms popular band

The band “We Ended In Disaster” consists of members Ryan Combs, from left, Derrick Eicholtz, Alex McPheron, Ben Gardner and Jordan Nance.

“We Ended In Disaster” indeed sounds like a cool name for a band that straddles pop, punk and metal sounds and fits in perfectly with a genre of music known for its other nefarious group names, such as Against All Authority, the Dead Milkmen, and Gorilla Biscuits. However, in contrast to some of those famous names, the name of the local band based out of Wapakoneta came from true happenings amongst its members.

“It has inspirational meaning to us,” said Ben Gardner, 20, the lead guitarist of the band.

Gardner said when the line-up first began playing together, all five members had been playing in other bands.

“There was sort of a tension between us because we were basically competing against each other,” Gardner said. “We decided the tension was too much, and we decided we should just help each other out.”

As fate would have it, soon after that group decision, members Gardner, Jordan Nance, of also of Wapakoneta, and Lima-area members Alex McPheron, Derrick Eicholtz, and Ryan Combs all saw their other bands ultimately fail and break up. The loosely formed group, which formed in 2010, began to take on their music more seriously in early 2012. They have since developed a large area following. The band currently is No. 1 on Reverbnation.com on the alternative music chart for the Lima area.

“We came together, kind of like a phoenix out of the ashes,” Gardner said.

While officially they charted No. 1 as an alternative band, Gardner said it is only because their style of music really doesn’t fit an encompassing genre.

“We are kind of like a 90s pop-punk band combined with a modern, new age metal sound,” Gardner said. “There is no wide-range genre that fits us. We are all 90s kids so the music from that era influenced us.”

The band entirely writes and performs its own music, but is also known on rare occasion to belt out a cover tune at its live shows. They aim to have at least one show every weekend, and generally attract crowds of 400 to 500 music lovers to its shows. They have their first official album release coming out in March, an 10-song compilation.

“We have sat down and written some music and put it out in the universe,” Gardner said. “It is out there and no one can take that away from us.”

The band hosts a large show every three months and is scheduled to play Feb. 23 in the Junior Fair Building at the Auglaize County Fairgrounds.

Garnder defined the band as “extremely hard working” and said their extended hopes are to be famous someday.

“Face it, who doesn’t want to be a rock star,” Gardner said. “Its an experience you want to have. Everyone can always hope. But our humble goal is simply our motto from an old Confucious saying, ‘To achieve ultimate greatness, find a job you love and you never have to work a day in your lives.’ We simply just want to make enough to be comfortable and support our families.”

The band has developed enough of a following to where they are routinely asked to play benefits, and have helped many local organization make money. Two examples were for a benefit to raise money for funeral costs for a boy that drowned in Lima and at the Auglaize County Relay For Life, where the band helped raise more than $1,000 for cancer research.

“We have fought many of these kind of issues in our own lives,” Gardner said. “Everyone fights cancer.”